One of the primary functions of personal care absorbent articles is to retain and absorb body exudates such as urine, fecal material, blood, and menses. Along these lines, a desired attribute of personal care absorbent articles is to minimize the leakage of such exudates from the absorbent article. It is also desired, however, that personal care absorbent articles retain and absorb the body exudates in such a fashion so as to provide a dry feel to the wearer, removing exudates from against the skin at the time of the initial insult of the exudate as well as retaining them away from the skin after such insult.
Improvements in leakage minimization have been achieved through gender specific products, where gender differentiation generally includes product aesthetics (print patterns, colored components, etc.) and absorbent/intake layer modifications that design the product toward boy/girl insult zone differences, such as varying surge layer placement between boy- and girl-intended products. Inefficiencies in manufacturing are introduced in producing what are essentially two different products.
Thus, there remains a need for an absorbent article that can provide increased efficiency of intake of body exudates into the absorbent body and improved handling of body exudates to minimize the amount of body exudates in contact with the wearer's skin, but with features similar enough to be considered the same product.